Portuguese unemployment hits new record high since euro introduced

Portugal’s jobless rate hit a new euro-era record high at the end of 2012 as the government’s austerity programme imposed in exchange for a €78bn bailout from the IMF and the European Union left the economy entrenched in recession.

The National Statistics Institute (INE) said the unemployment rate jumped to 16.9% in the fourth quarter of 2012 from 15.8% the previous three months and from 14.0% in the same period a year earlier. The average rate for last year was 15.7%, three percentage points higher than a year earlier

• Primary Source

Portugal: National Statistics Institute / Statistics Portugal: Press Release, 13.02.13: Unemployment rate at 16.9% - 4th Quarter 2012 http://www.ine.pt/ngt_server/attachfileu.jsp?look_parentBoui=153492919&att_display=n&att_download=y

Website: Statistics Portugal (INE) http://www.ine.pt/

---